How Oregon's Business Registry works
The oldest registration still sitting on Oregon's active register was filed on 17 May 1850 — a nonprofit in Oregon City, registry number 299818. It shares the register with 562,315 current registrations, and the mix is lopsided: 295,577 domestic LLCs, 116,120 assumed business names, 46,305 domestic business corporations, 34,498 domestic nonprofits (July 2026).
That second number is the one that bites. An assumed business name is Oregon's DBA — required "any time you are conducting business under a name that does not include your 'real and true name'" — and it sits in the same Business Registry with a registry number of its own. Roughly one in five names you can find is a registration, not an entity. entity_type separates them, which is why a quick check returns it rather than treating "found" as the answer.
The public surface is binary. The Corporation Division's Search Active Business Registration Records tool states it flatly: "Only searches for active business names will return results." An entity administratively dissolved for a missed annual report is off that surface — the same page tells you to call 503-986-2200 for an inactive record. So an Oregon quick check answers is this registration current?, and a name that isn't current reads as a no-match rather than as a dissolved record.
Naming is tighter than it looks. Under OAR 160-010-0012 two names aren't distinguishable if they differ only by "Words that identify the type of business entity, such as 'Inc.,' 'LLC,' 'Co.,' 'Corp.'" Every LLC name must contain "Limited Liability Company", "LLC", or "L.L.C."; a business corporation must contain "Corporation", "Company", "Incorporated", or "Limited", or an abbreviation. Both formation forms also demand an "Individual With Direct Knowledge" — a named human, on a filing the Division says "will be posted on our website". Oregon is not an anonymity state.
BizVerify supports instant quick checks for Oregon today — entity name, entity type, registry number, status. Deep verification, including the registered agent's Oregon street address and the principal place of business, is on the roadmap for this jurisdiction.
What Oregon specifically charges and requires
Formation
Oregon prices domestic for-profit formation flat. $100 covers LLC Articles of Organization, business or professional corporation Articles of Incorporation, a Certificate of Limited Partnership, and an LLP Application for Registration alike — the processing fee is the same document to document. Domestic nonprofit incorporation is $50. Foreign qualification is where it steps up: $275 to register a foreign corporation, LLC, LP, or LLP, with foreign nonprofits held at $50. A name reservation is $100. The Division publishes a dated processing board and quotes 1–3 business days for online business registry filings.
Annual obligations
There is no statewide due date. "Your renewal is due on the anniversary date of the original filing," and the notice goes out about 45 days ahead. "An assumed business name renews every two years. All other business entity types renew every year." Renewal costs what registration cost: $100 domestic, $275 foreign, $50 nonprofit, $50 for an assumed business name. Skip it and the entity is administratively dissolved. Reinstatement inside five years runs online or on paper — you pay a reinstatement fee plus the missed annual fees, and the name has to still be available. Past five years it takes special forms and a call to the Division.
Registered agent
Every entity names a registered agent to accept legal service, and the agent's publicly available address "Must be an Oregon Street Address, which is identical to the registered agent's office." The principal office must be a physical street address too. Changing the registered agent or the address costs $0.
| Filing | Fee |
|---|---|
| LLC Articles of Organization (domestic) | $100 |
| Articles of Incorporation — business/professional (domestic) | $100 |
| Articles of Incorporation — nonprofit (domestic) | $50 |
| Foreign corporation / LLC / LP / LLP registration | $275 |
| Annual renewal — domestic | $100 |
| Annual renewal — foreign | $275 |
| Annual renewal — nonprofit | $50 |
| Assumed business name — new, and every 2 years | $50 |
| Name reservation | $100 |
| Change of registered agent or address | $0 |
| Service of process | $20 |
Common ways developers use Oregon verification
Gate an onboarding agent on a current registration
An onboarding agent takes the Oregon name a customer typed and calls verify_business({ entity_name, jurisdiction: "us-or" }) through the BizVerify MCP server. A hit whose entity_type reads as a domestic LLC provisions; one that comes back as an assumed business name routes to a human; a no-match blocks. The identical loop runs from Claude or an OpenAI Agents tool.
Schedule renewal checks off each entity's own anniversary
Because Oregon renews on the filing anniversary, a calendar-quarter sweep is the wrong shape — one counterparty's window falls in March, the next one's in November. Store the registry date, then re-check each entity in the weeks around its own date. An n8n workflow keyed to that anniversary catches an administrative dissolution before it costs you a contract renewal.
Tell the entity from the DBA in marketplace onboarding
116,120 of Oregon's active registrations are assumed business names. A seller trading as "Portland Coffee Roasters" might be an LLC, a sole proprietor's DBA, or both at once. Reading entity_type before you attach a payout account keeps a name registration out of the liable-entity column — a LangChain tool does that check inline inside a KYB pipeline.
Score West Coast expansion prospects
A foreign entity pays $275 a year to stay registered in Oregon against $100 for a domestic one. Knowing which prospects already carry an Oregon registration — and which would be starting from zero — changes the pitch. A CrewAI crew doing lead enrichment can resolve a list of company names to registry numbers in one pass.
Frequently asked questions
What status will a quick check return for an Oregon entity?
active. Oregon's public register is a two-state model — a registration is current or it isn't — and the Corporation Division's active-records search returns only active names. A match tells you the registration was current when the call ran. A name that's been administratively dissolved comes back as a no-match rather than as a distinct dissolved status.
When is an Oregon annual report due?
On the anniversary date of the original filing, not a statewide date, with the Division's renewal notice going out about 45 days ahead. Every entity type renews annually except assumed business names, which renew every two years. Practically, that means you can't clear your whole Oregon book on one day — each entity has its own window.
Why did an Oregon lookup return no match for a company I know existed?
Usually because the registration is no longer current. Oregon administratively dissolves entities that miss an annual report, and the Corporation Division's active-records search only returns active names — it points you at 503-986-2200 for an inactive record. Check the name too: the Division's own search ranges from exact-word-order matching to sound-alike, so the name as registered may not be the name you were handed.
Is an assumed business name the same thing as an Oregon LLC?
No. An assumed business name is Oregon's DBA, required whenever you do business under a name that doesn't include your real and true name. It's a name registration, not a legal entity, and it lives in the same Business Registry with its own registry number — so a name search can surface one. entity_type is the field that tells them apart.
Which identifier do you return for an Oregon entity?
The registry number the Corporation Division assigns at registration, as jurisdiction_id. It survives name changes, so reconcile on it instead of the display name. One quirk worth normalizing for: the Division displays the number with a dash and instructs you to key it without one.
Does BizVerify support deep verification for Oregon today?
Oregon is quick check today — entity name, entity type, registry number, and status, enough to confirm a registration is current. Deep verification, adding the registered agent and their Oregon street address, the principal place of business and mailing address, and the authorized representatives on the record, is on the roadmap for Oregon. We prioritize by demand: tell us what you need.
How current is Oregon data, and what does a check cost?
A quick check reflects Oregon's record as it stands when the call runs — BizVerify keeps no snapshot of its own sitting in between. A quick check is 1 credit, about $0.08 at public pricing, whichever entity type comes back. Building an agent on top of it? The AI agents guide covers the tool-call shape.